Last winter I had an invasion of six raccoon on my deck. Not wanting to kill them, I tried Live traps. Caught the neighbors cat instead
. After a week of food in trap gone but no raccoon in the trap I left them a peace offering. I took mini marsh mellows rolled them in dry raspberry jello mix. Made them a heaping plate full! And put them out on my deck. Haven't seen evidence or seen a raccoon on my deck since! I probably should mention that I poked a small hole in the mini marsh mellows and inserted Bhut Jolokia and Trinidad Scorpion seeds in them before rolling them in the raspberry jello mix. Raspberry jello mix masked the smell of the pepper seeds so they didn't smell them. The next morning about half the marsh mellows were gone. They never came back for the rest!
